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Colin Houck Records Three Hits In St. Lucie Win

By Ricky Keeler

May 2, 2024 No comments

Colin Houck, Photo by Ed Delany of Mets Minors

Wednesday was not a winning day in the Mets organization, as the four affiliates combined to go 1-4 in the five games that were played, scoring a combined 15 runs. That said, some of the top 2023 picks (Nolan McLean and Colin Houck) had strong games at the plate, and St. Lucie’s starter reached a career-high in strikeouts. Check out more on what else happened in the organization.

Triple-A

Rochester Red Wings (13-12) 2, Syracuse Mets (15-12) 1

BOX SCORE

Syracuse’s lone run on Wednesday came in the first inning on an RBI triple from Bannon. The 28-year-old has driven in a run in four of his last five games. The offense was 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, and it had ten strikeouts against three different Rochester pitchers. 

  • LHP Joey Lucchesi (2.25 ERA): 6 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 5 K (65 of 90 pitches for strikes)
  • RHP Grant Hartwig (3.60): 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H (8 of 12 pitches for strikes)
  • LHP Josh Walker (0-2, 3.18): 1.2 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 3 K (21 of 28 pitches for strikes)

It was a quality outing for Lucchesi on Wednesday with the only damage against him coming via a game-tying RBI single in the fourth. The southpaw has gone six innings in three of his last four starts and has allowed two runs or fewer in each of his six starts this year. Walker ended up allowing a walk-off home run in the ninth as he took the loss. 

Double-A

Game 1

Hartford Yard Goats (13-7) 4, Binghamton Rumble Ponies (10-11) 3

BOX SCORE

In Game 1 of the doubleheader, the Rumble Ponies only got five hits against three different Yard Goats pitchers. Jordan had the clutch hit in the bottom of the third as his two-run single gave the Rumble Ponies a 2-1 lead. The 25-year-old has driven in six runs in the last five games. The other run that was driven in came on a Jackson RBI single in the fourth. 

  • RHP Luis Moreno (5.63): 1.1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, BB, K (18 of 31 pitches for strikes)
  • RHP Junior Santos (3.27): 2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, BB, K (14 of 24 pitches for strikes)
  • RHP Cam Robinson (0-1, 27.00): 0.1 IP, 3 R (1 ER), 1 H, 2 BB, K (14 of 27 pitches for strikes)
  • RHP Wilkin Ramos (0.00): 1.2 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, K (16 of 19 pitches for strikes)

The Yard Goats had a lone extra-base hit on a solo home run in the top of the third, but it was the team’s three-run sixth inning that ultimately got Hartford the win, with all three coming against Robinson, who was making his Met organizational debut (errors in the inning by Jordan and Matt Rudick). 

Ramos got the final five outs for Binghamton. The 23-year-old right-hander has gone more than one inning in three of his last four relief appearances and has gone seven straight outings without allowing a run. 

Game 2

Hartford Yard Goats (14-7) 4, Binghamton Rumble Ponies (10-12) 2 

BOX SCORE

Binghamton had their chances to erase an early 4-0 deficit in Game 2, but the offense went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Schwartz drove in the only two runs of the game for the Rumble Ponies with a double in the third and a sacrifice fly in the seventh. 

  • RHP Tyler Stuart (0-1, 4.58): 4 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 4 K (50 of 78 pitches for strikes)
  • RHP Andre Scrubb (2.25): 3 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 3 K (28 of 41 pitches for strikes)

It was a rough first inning for Stuart as Hartford had four of the first five hitters reach base including a wild pitch on a strikeout to lead off the game. Eventually, a sacrifice fly and a three-run home run had Hartford up by four. However, Stuart settled in as he retired 10 of the last 13 hitters he faced. 

High-A

Aberdeen IronBirds (12-11) 6, Brooklyn Cyclones (12-11) 2

BOX SCORE

The Cyclones had seven of the nine hitters in the starting lineup record one hit each, but nobody had a multi-hit game and the team struck out 14 times. After Brooklyn was down 3-0 early, McLean got the team on the board with a solo home run in the second inning. 

https://twitter.com/BKCyclones/status/1785802761709260844

Lorusso drove in the other run for Brooklyn with an RBI single in the third. The 9th-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft has at least one hit in eight of his last nine games and has driven in at least one run in seven of his last eight games. 

  • LHP Felipe De La Cruz (0-3, 2.91): 4 IP, 3 R (1 ER), 5 H, 3 BB, 4 K (48 of 82 pitches for strikes)
  • RHP Brett Banks (4.15): 1.2 IP, 2 ER, 3 H. BB (17 of 35 pitches for strikes)
  • RHP Justin Lawson (0.00): 2.1 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 2 K (22 of 28 pitches for strikes)

Brooklyn’s defense did not help their pitching staff, as they ended up making four errors in Wednesday’s loss. At the same time, De La Cruz has struggled with his command recently (three walks in back-to-back starts). Two of those walks came in the second inning and both runners ended up coming around to score. 

The standout of the day in the Brooklyn bullpen was Lawson. The 15th-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft out of NC State has yet to allow a run in the first six appearances of his career. He has provided good length in the Brooklyn bullpen by going two innings or more in three of those outings. 

Low-A

St. Lucie Mets (11-15) 7, Jupiter Hammerheads (15-8) 2

BOX SCORE

St. Lucie started the afternoon by scoring four runs in the bottom of the first, all of which came with two outs via RBI singles by Perozo, Suero, and Baro. Perozo had his fourth multi-hit game of the year and his first three-hit game of the season. 

In addition to Perozo, Houck had a three-hit day (his first multi-hit game of the season). Baro stole his first two bases of his professional career (his ninth career game dating back to last year). 

  • RHP Austin Troesser (1.96): 4.2 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 9 K (47 of 78 pitches for strikes)
  • RHP Saul García (1-1, 7.71): 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 K (7 of 11 pitches for strikes)
  • LHP Ryan Ammons (2.57): 2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 4 K (21 of 38 pitches for strikes)

In his third career start, Troesser was dominant against the Hammerheads as he picked up 15 whiffs out of the 78 pitches he threw (Baseball Savant). The 22-year-old right-hander and 4th-round pick from a year ago tied a season-high with 4.2 innings of work and reached a new career-high with the nine strikeouts (28 in 5 starts this year).